Workers Socialist League

Socialist Press, Trotskyism Today, Woman Worker, Class Fighter and the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee, 1975–1984

Conference Fron

Socialist Press no. 68, 31 August 1977 · scan p. 12 · about 538 words

Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 12 →

Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.

Scan page 12

A Workers Socialist League public meeting in London-How to Win at Grunwicks and Desoutters-survived twin threats recently. First Jack Dromey urged strike committee members not to attend-a plan that fell on Next the pub where the meeting was due to be held was visited by the National Front. The publican and his family were threatened. Police told him that any trouble would be on his own head (five days after protecting The WSL would of course have gone ahead, preferably without police nracant de it was precented with a fait accomnli a successful meeting of €2.10 £4.20 €8.40 to the strike committee, Mahmood George Anthony from the AUEW Ahmed and Jayabeen Desai.

But it had already become clear that such support was not enough mass picketing and blacking to to overcome the leadership that the lose Grunwick had a hollow ring supporters of the strike were con- articularly to the delegation fror fronted by. the AUEW official strike Mass action around picketing Desoutters. and behind the Cricklewood postmens action had forced Grunwicks een on strike 17 weeks for th boss, Ward, and his NAFF and Tory same principles, but Anthony who backers to hand the initiative to the is their District Secretary, has conAPEX and UPW bureaucracies who sistently refused to fight for these were intent on defusing the situa- same key demands. tion.

Regional Committee, recalled the HAND PICKED mass struggles to tree the Pentonville 5 dockers in 1972. He did not The procession of hand-picked say that Regional Committee had Stalinists who spoke from the floor reversed a unanimous vote to back had no intention whatsoever of the August 8 mass picket. pointing this out.

Typical of Communist Party had had the nerve to refer to the duplicity was the contribution by prolonged strikes for union recognition by TGWU members against Trust Houses Forte.

Sheffield, Oxford and Birmingham was due entirely to TGWU leadership's refusal to organise effective blacking.

to be the keynote of the conference and not wanting to be left out of the act, Tribune Group MP Martin £1.50 Flannery assured everyone that the £3.00 working class of Sheffield were €6.00 behind the strike. With only one month to go we are now only two-thirds of the way towards our target of £3,000.

This money is urgently needed for the launching of the weekly Socialist Press in October.

With workers up and down the country prepared to take on the government's 12-month rule and 10% 'guideline' ', a weekly Socialist Press will be an indispensable weapon in the fight for a new leadership in the unions based on a programme that can defend workers' living standards.

All readers and supporters are urged to send donations and help us raise our target on time.

Among the latest contributions are: South London £93; car workers, £31.50; Birmingham £17; Leeds £33; Coventry £5; Hull £5.50; PC £10; AG £2: "a principled IMG member" £1 The total received since the last issue was £226.10, giving us a grand total to date of E1912.18.

Donations should be sent to:

Socialist Press Special Fund 31, Dartmouth Park Hill London NW5 1HR 1917 ... .. 1977 To commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution the WSL has produced a

← Contents of Socialist Press no. 68, 31 August 1977

Something wrong on this page? Tell us →